RA Sessions: Benedek

Live Balearic funk from LA.

"Most people who have chops don't have the flavour," Nicky Benedek told us early one morning in an LA warehouse, shortly after a deft DJ set heavy on his own productions.
If you've listened to his releases for the likes of Peoples Potential Unlimited and Leaving Records, caught him live on tours throughout Europe, Australia and Asia, on the decks at NTS Radio, or in some clandestine loft, you know that Benedek is one of those rare souls blessed with both.

Originally emerging as a boogie prodigy (his first 7-inch featured Dâm-Funk on vocals), he's since come into his own, raiding dollar 12-inch bins to formulate a singular and off-kilter Balearic funk. Benedek, the multi-instrumentalist son of a screenwriter, feels like a throwback not only to LA's private-press soul past, but to the time when crack studio musicians made a living in revered rooms at Capitol Records and Sunset Sound. Perhaps it's down to the Santa Monica-born Benedek's proximity to Tinseltown that "Earlyman Dance," off his new 12-inch for the Music From Memory sub-label Second Circle, feels like a house track that could fit on the score for Michael Mann's classic LA noir, Heat.

Following an improvised intro, Benedek performed "Earlyman Dance" alongside Anthony Calonico (trumpet, keys) and Chris Paris (percussion) at Lot 613 as part of our recent Community Connections series in LA.

Benedek, who is getting ready to release <a href=/tracks/857686>an album</a> on Leaving Records, will play alongside local weirdos like Bludwork (100% Silk) and Cat 500 (Leaving), as well as Portland's Soul Ipsum.